I am coming to the conclusion that building a brand online — in any interactive medium — by buying awareness, is a fool’s errand. Sure, there are some online only campaigns that have established companies — Vonage is generally cited. The X10 Web Cam pop-under was inescapable … but I am eager to find a brand that primarily built online, or, at the very least, changed itself through an online brand campaign.
I think one can change demand through online buys, but brand is a function of:
- Citizen marketing: users telling other users whether a product/company is worth doing business with.
- Search: the game changed with Google when prospective customers can work the consideration process with total recall and accuracy
- Buzz: whatever buzz is, it seems to be activated online via viral, YouTube is an enabler, but buzz seems to be ephemeral and something you find, not plan.
If I were to invest in brand building online I’d pour my money into the social media side, not impressions.
The same question has roamed around my head for the past couple of months; I still need to lurke in the dark and quiet before I can get to anything similar to a conclusion regarding online branding…
That being said all examples of successful online branding strategies were for online services (google, for instance, wikipedia for a more modern example).
NetFlix
overstock
ask
godaddy
“(actually wrote this on the erg, while cooling down my heart rate to 100 bpm, connected wirelessly from the garage. Thankfully the ThinkPad X60 has a spill resistant keyboard, as I am dripping dave-juice into it)”
Perhaps not as spill resistant as originally thought…